Improvement in water-proof soles and heels for boots and shoes



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN D. GODFREY, OF MILFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT lN WATER-PROOF SOLES AND HEELS FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 18,583, dated November 10, 1857.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN D. GODEREY, of Milford, in the county ot Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Tater-Proof Soles and Heels of Boots; and I do hereby declare that the follow- Y ing is a full, clear, and exact description of the principle or character which distinguishes it from all other things before known, and of the usual manner of making, modifying, and using the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a vertical middle section of the boot; Fig. 2, a side viewof the boot with the parts detached. l

My invention consists in an improvement in water-proof soles and heels for boots and shoes, described, represented, and specified as follows:v

The usual mode of waterprooiing the soles or bottoms of boots and shoes by means of rubber is to cement a sole-piece to the leather sole extending from the toe to just beyond the hollow of the sole, or to prepare a rubber sole and heel all in one piece and cement this to the leather sole, and in some instances also, where the sole-piece has been used, a separate rubber heel has been cemented to the leather. These modes are objectionable for the following reasons: It is important that the Whole of the bottom of the shoe should be water-proof, and therefore a half-sole or halfsole and heel of rubber Will not be sufficient for the purpose. To make the Whole Waterproof, the sole, with the heel, have been made in one piece and then cemented to the leather sole. The objections to this mode are twofold: first, the expense ot preparing the heel and sole in one piece, and, secondly, the liability to tear oit from the leather at the heel, the whole strain falling on the cemented joint at that part. By my improvement the dilculties incident to all of the plans in use are fully remedied. It makes the entire sole water-proof, diminishes the expense of an entire waterproof sole and makes the same less liable to tear 0E.

The improvement is described as follows: Instead of making a half-sole or a sole and heel in one, I cement an entire sole-piece A the length of the foot, and to this at the heel cement a separate heel-piece B, as shown in the drawings. The entire sole is thus, of course, Water-prooi", the separate entire sole and heel are less .expensive than a sole and heel in one piece, and the strain upon the heel falling upon the two cemented joints is divided between them, and the result is greater durability.

I do not claim making a heel separate from a sole, as this is common to leather shoes; but

I claim- The employment of a cast heel of indiarubber with an entire sole of rolled or sheet rubber, substantially as set forth, as an improvement in the manufacture of rubber shoes.

BENJ. D. GODFREY.

Witnesses:

R. T. CAMPBELL, R. L. LEWIS. 

